Monthly Archives: January 2015

“I am often met with confusion (or I end up resorting to English) because I don’t know how to explain a task.

I really struggle to explain what I want them to do as a task.

How do you explain games that you want them to play?”

Here’s how I would begin answering the question:

1- You’re doing a great job! If you have a desire to stay in the target language, you are doing your students a great service! Don’t give up. Keep trying! The more you experiment and try the easier it becomes. Don’t feel like you need to make the transition (to 90+% target language) seamlessly. Give yourself a year or two to transition. Work on different PAIRING techniques. Try different ideas. Throw out ideas that don’t work. Tweak strategies that do work. Don’t feel pressure to do it all perfectly at once. (Read this post for more info on why it can be such a good idea to stay in the target language.)

“Color/circle 1 of 4 pictures with the color that I say.” (i.e. Say and do the following in the target language: “Hello class. Here are crayons for you. Here are crayons for you. Here are crayons for you. Here are crayons for you. Crayons for everybody! And…here is a paper for you. Paper for you. Paper for you. Paper for you. Paper for you and paper for you. Paper for everybody! Now…take out BLUE. (Teacher takes out blue and shows students. Teacher walks around room showing all the students her blue crayon until every student is holding up their BLUE crayon.) Class, repeat: “BLUE.” Good. Now class. Color the bird blue. (Teacher begins coloring the bird, on her copy of the worksheet, blue. Teacher’s copy of the worksheet is posted on the board so students can see and imitate what she is doing.) Great. Good job class. Yes. Blue. Blue. Color the bird blue. Good, Daniel. Good, Jessica. Good class. Blue. Color the bird blue. Okay? (Teacher circulates to make sure every student has colored their picture of the bird blue.) Okay class. Attention. (Teacher holds up the blue crayon for all to see.) Goodbye blue! (Teacher puts blue crayon away and then starts looking at the students and saying ‘goodbye blue!’ to imply that she wants them to put their blue crayons away.) Good class. Goodbye blue. Okay class. Now RED. Take out RED. Red. Take out RED. (Teacher continues to give instructions like this until the activity is done.)

“Color what I say” (activity modifications) (To practice numbers Teacher says, “Class take out the red crayon. Color the number 57. (Pause for students to do the work. Then continue…) Class take out the blue crayon. Color the number 572.” To practice adjectives Teacher says, “Class take out the red crayon. Color the boy that is taller. Class take out the blue crayon. Color the big (bigger) animal.” To practice reading comprehension Teacher asks the students to follow similar directions. However Teacher now requires the students to follow written directions (on the board or on handouts) instead of verbal directions.

Throw the ball to _____. (simple version) (i.e. Say and do the following in the target language: “John…sit here. (Teacher points to the chair she wants John to sit in.) Stacey…sit here. Jennifer…sit here. Daesean…sit here. Rogelio…sit here. (Teacher continues like this until the whole class is seated. Teacher pulls out a ball and says…) Ball. Class, this is a ball. A ball. (Teacher motions like she’s going to throw it to a student and says..) Who would like to catch? (If a student raises his/her hand, teacher throws the ball to the student. When the student catches the ball, teacher says…) Nice job! (Teacher motions like she would like the student to throw the ball back to her and says…) Throw the ball to me. (Teacher repeats these steps with a few more students. If students are cooperating and well behaved, Teacher changes the activity by saying…) Stacey…throw the ball to John. (When Teacher says the words “throw the ball” Teacher does a throwing motion with her arm. Teacher continues saying…) John, throw the ball to Rogelio. Rogelio…throw the ball to Daesean.

Throw the ball to _____. (advanced version) (i.e. Say and do the following in the target language: “John, throw the ball to someone wearing a red shirt. Stacey throw the ball to someone wearing a blue shirt.” Teacher may also choose to pass out large number flashcards to each student. Teacher says, “John, throw the ball to the person holding number 47. Stacey throw the ball to the person holding the number 124.”

Throw the ball to _____. (confident/advanced student version) Teacher follows the activity script from “advanced version” above. Then she writes the sentence she has been saying on the board and asks for a volunteer to take her place as the “caller.” Student, with the help of the sentence written on the board says the throwing directions to his/her classmates.

3- Pick activities that will be repeated many times throughout the school year. It takes a long time to give comprehensible directions. So if you are going to take the time to make it comprehensible…make sure you repeat the activity many times. An easy way for me to do this is to have the students do all the things that need to be done in the classroom every day. I never shut the door. I never turn on or off the lights. I never pass out the papers or supplies. I never collect the pencils. I always instruct students to do these things for me and I always give my instructions in the target language. It may take extra class time for the students to get it the first time…but they will catch on easily and you can recycle the activity throughout the year.

4- Make it easy for your reluctant students. Pick activities that target the interpretive mode of communication in order to help build the confidence of your reluctant students. See this post for more details.

6- When giving instructions on what students should say to each other during a conversation activity, use the Two-Hand-Method.

Have you tried out any of these grammar teaching suggestions from Tuesday’s Tips for Staying in the Target Language? How did it go? Leave comments below or add to the conversation on twitter by using #langchat (for general language teaching comments) and/or #TL90plus (for“staying in the target language” comments).

In this PART 6 post you’ll find a list of ideas to help you develop lesson plans for teaching the verb “TO LISTEN” and some “Statements of Preference” (TO LIKE/LOVE/ENJOY). For step-by-step examples of how to teach these types of lessons, please see the comprehensive lesson transcripts from parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this series entitled, “Teaching Grammar In The Target Language.”

Remember, our main approach/principle for teaching grammar while staying in the target language is…

…give students MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES in which the target grammar structures are used often enough to be noticed and acquired.

Instructional Activities/Strategies

Making learning the verbs “TO LISTEN” and “TO LIKE” meaningful by listening to and discussing music in the target language.

1- “To Listen” – Future Tense

First, identify a variety of popular musical selections from the target culture. Introduce the verb forms of “to listen” by saying (in the target language) things like, “Michael will listen to Song #1. Rachael will listen to Song #2. William and Thomas will listen to Song #3 and the rest of us will listen to song #4.”

Help students practice the introduced forms of the verb by continuing in the following fashion, “Class, who will listen to Song #2? (Students answer.) And who will listen to Song #1? (Students answer.) etc.”

Help students practice writing complete sentences that include these verb forms by doing the following: “Okay Class. Let’s write it on the board. Ummm. Who will listen to Song #1? (Student answers.) Great. Let’s write that on the board so we can remember.” Repeat until the written list is complete.

Use iPads, CD players, computers, listening stations to allow the students to listen to the assigned songs. The first time the songs are played students should only be asked to listen.

The second time the songs are played, circulate throughout the room and ask students, “Are you listening to Song #1 or are you listening to Song #2?” Motion thumbs up or thumbs down and ask, “Do you like the song or do you not like the song?”

3- “To Listen” – Past Tense | “To Like or Not Like” Past Tense

Conduct a debriefing time and ask questions like, “Class, what song did Rachael listen to?” (Class answers and Teacher continues.) “Rachael, is it true? Did you listen to Song #1? …or did you listen to Song #2?” AND, “Rachael did you like Song #1 or did you not like Song #1?”

Reinforcement / Student Practice ideas:

Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 several times over the span of a week or 2 weeks. Assign different songs to each student every time the activity is repeated.

Assessment Ideas:

Non-Digital Assessment Option: Teacher writes a friendly letter (addressed to “Dear _____”) using content and grammar structures from this unit. (i.e. “Hi. How are you? I like music. Do you like music? I like the song called ______. I listened to the song 4 times on Sunday. Do you listen to the song called ______? Do you like the song or do you not like the song? What songs do you like?”

For the assessment students must write back. Create a rubric to help students know how you will grade them.

Digital Assessment Option: Distribute iPads, laptops or simply pen and paper. Create a Google Doc and share the shareable link with each student. Students open the Google Doc on their device and prepare to collaborate. Teacher writes a series of questions for students to answer while also asking the questions outloud. Students follow the progression of questions verbally and on their screen. Students are only required to find the question(s) next to their name and answer. Questions can include, “Rachael what songs did you listen to?” “Rachael, which songs did you like?” “Rachael, which songs did you not like?” Rachael is required to write her answer on the Google Doc.

Alternatively, Teacher can have the questions already written.

REFLECT: What did the students experience during this activity?

Students repeatedly heard, read and said different forms of the verb for “to listen and to like”.

Unit assessments were meaningful and generally non-threatening to reluctant students.

Digital assessment option allows students to practice collaborating and to learn 21st century skills.

The teacher stayed in the target language.

The students realized that they could not only survive in an L2-immersion environment but that it can be fun.

Have you tried out any of these grammar teaching suggestions from Tuesday’s Tips for Staying in the Target Language? How did it go? Leave comments below or add to the conversation on twitter by using #langchat (for general language teaching comments) and/or #TL90plus (for“staying in the target language” comments).

Stay tuned to over the next weeks for more blog posts on teaching grammar while staying in the target language.

In this post (Part 5) we will discuss how to introduce the past tense forms of some verbs while staying in the target language.

Remember our main approach/principle for teaching grammar while staying in the target language is…

…give students MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES in which the target grammar structures are used often enough to be noticed and acquired.

Read the following script of how a teacher uses this approach in the foreign language classroom. (Note: The following Part 5 transcript is written in English, although you should imagine the teacher saying all of her statements in the language that you teach. i.e. French, Russian, Arabic, etc.)

Teacher reviews some of the Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 target grammar structures by saying/doing the following:

Without saying anything, Teacher passes out several individual size boxes of variety cereals (including Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms) to students who are sitting quietly and attentively. Everytime Teacher places a box on a student’s desk, she motions for silence and stillness by saying, “Shhh.”

Once the cereal is passed out, and all students are sitting quietly (and no cereal box has been opened), Teacher writes the following L2 sentences on the board:

“Who has Lucky Charms?” “Who will eat Lucky Charms?”

“_____ has Lucky Charms.” “____ will eat Lucky Charms.”

While standing next to the sentences on the board, Teacher starts looking around the room and identifies which student has which cereal by saying, “Rontrell has Cheerios. Okay. Rontrell will eat Cheerios. Isabella has Cheerios too. Yes. Rontrell and Isabella have Cheerios. So Rontrell will eat Cheerios and Isabella will eat Cheerios. And. …and… (teacher looks around the room to see who else has a different variety cereal) …and, let’s see…umm…William. Yes, William. William doesn’t have Cheerios. William has Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Yes, William has Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Rontrell and Isabella have Cheerios…and…William has Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Rontrell and Isabella will eat Cheerios and William will eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”

Teacher raises her hand, (to imply that she would like students to volunteer to answer her questions) and asks, “Who has Lucky Charms? Who will eat Lucky Charms?” Teacher calls on a volunteer to answer. If the student answers with an incomplete sentence, Teacher uses the Two-Hand Method to elicit a complete L2 sentence. Teacher rewards students for participating and using the target language. (Consider using ClassDojo.com to reward on-task behavior.)

Teacher continues asking students the target questions from the board until she feels all students, or almost all, have understood how they are supposed to use these L2 questions and answers.

Teacher walks towards a student (who has cereal) and says, “Rontrell. Go ahead. Eat. Eat. Eat your Cheerios.” Teacher walks to Isabella and says, “Isabella. Go ahead. Eat. Eat. Eat your Cheerios.” Teacher continues saying this to all the cereal eaters until all of them have opened the boxes and eaten their cereal. After each student has received directions to eat, and while students are still eating, Teacer keeps saying, “Eat. Eat. Eat your cereal. Yum. Delicious. Delicious. Eat. Eat.”

When students are done eating, Teacher asks each student to throw away the trash and return to their seats to pay attention to the next portion of the lesson.

To introduce past tense forms of the verb “To Eat”:

Teacher pauses in front of the room looks at all the students who have returned to their seats from throwing away their trash.

Teacher walks to Rontrell and says, “What did you eat? Did you eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch or did you eat Cheerios?” (If Rontrell answers with an incomplete sentence, Teacher points to the board to imply that he should answer completely using the sentence written on the board. If Rontrell has trouble, Teacher uses the Two-Hand Method to help him succeed.)

Teacher walks to Isabella and says, “Isabella, what did you eat? Did you eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch or did you eat Cheerios?” Teacher waits for Isabella’s answer and accepts it if/when it’s a complete L2 sentence.

Teacher continues like this until all cereal-eating students have been asked (and have answered) the target question, “What did you eat?”

Teacher introduces and practices the 3rd person form of the past tense verb by doing the following:

Teacher walks to the board and tries to write down who ate which cereals. Teacher will purposefully get confused and write some wrong answers. She uses this strategy to motivate students to use L2. Students will think it’s funny and fun to see Teacher’s mistakes and correct them. At the same time they will be having to learn and use the correct 3rd person form of a past tense L2 verb.

Noticing that the students are correcting her, Teacher turns around from her writing and says, “William didn’t eat Cheerios? Are you sure? William didn’t eat Cheerios?” Teacher uses the Two-Hand Method to help the students say, “No! William did not eat Cheerios.” Teacher pretends like she understands now and says, “Okay. Rontrell ate Cheerios but William did NOT eat Cheerios. Right?”

In this post (Part 4) we will discuss how to introduce the future tense forms of some verbs while staying in the target language.

Remember our main approach/principle for teaching grammar while staying in the target language is…

…give students MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES in which the target grammar structures are used often enough to be noticed and acquired.

Read the following script of how a teacher uses this approach in the foreign language classroom. (Note: The following Part 4 transcript is written in English, although you should imagine the teacher saying all of her statements in the language that you teach. i.e. French, Russian, Arabic, etc.)

Teacher reviews some of the Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 target grammar structures by saying/doing the following:

“I have Cheerios. I have 2 boxes of Cheerios.” (Teacher pulls them out of a bag or out from under a desk.) “Yes. I have 2 boxes of Cheerios. (Pause) Also… Also I have Lucky Charms. Yes. I have Lucky Charms. I have 2 boxes of Lucky Charms.” (Teacher pulls them out and puts them next to the two boxes of Cheerios.) “I have 2 boxes of Cheerios and I have 2 boxes of Lucky Charms. (Pause) Also… Also I have Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I have 2 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.” (Teacher pulls them out and puts them next to the other 4 boxes.) “I have 2 boxes of Cheerios AND I have 2 boxes of Lucky Charms AND I have 2 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (Pause) You (teacher points to a student) …you don’t have Cheerios. You (teacher points to another student) …you don’t have Cheerios. I have Cheerios. But you…and you…and you…and you don’t have Cheerios. (Pause. Teacher walks back to her boxes of cereal. She looks at them and pats her hungry stomach and says…) “Delicious. Delicious Cheerios. Delicious Lucky Charms. Delicious Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”

Teacher walks to the board and writes the following questions/phrases:

“Who wants ______?” (Note: The blank is for the cereal choice.)

“______ wants ______.” (Note: The 1st blank is for a student name and the 2nd blank is for their cereal choice.)

Teacher pauses and gets the box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Teacher raises her hand (to indicate that she is looking for volunteers) and says, “Who wants Cinnamon Toast Crunch?” and repeats the line of questioning/discussion from the paragraph above. (Remember all of this repeating has a purpose. It’s allowing your students to notice the target grammar structures/rules that you are trying to help them acquire. They won’t notice or acquire them unless you repeat them tirelessly. Additionally, they will be bored if you don’t make the repitition meaningful and engaging. Remember: we should purpose to give students MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES in which the target grammar structures are used often enough to be noticed and acquired. In this model lesson, the food (and the opportunity to eat it in class) is what makes the experience meaningful.)

Teacher repeats this line of questioning until all 6 boxes of cereal are passed out on the corners of the desks of 6 students. (Side note: If you are “Desk Free,” like Ashley Uyaguari, you can modify the activity by placing the box of cereal in front of the student seated on a rug.)

To start introducing the future tense of the verb “to eat,” Teacher writes the following L2 phrases on the board (where the 1st blank is for the student name and the 2nd blank is for the cereal choice):

Teacher pauses and moves toward the board implying that she wants to write this information down so as not to forget it. With her back to the students she starts writing who will eat each cereal but then pretends to forget parts of the information.

Teacher writes and says, “Aiden will eat Lucky Charms.” And then Teacher starts sounding confused and makes the mistake of writing, “Allison will eat Lucky Charms.” At this point some students might start correcting the teacher. The teacher uses the Two-Hand-Method to help them say, “No Teacher! Allison will not eat Lucky Charms. Daniel will eat Lucky Charms.” Teacher realizes her mistake and says, “Oh yes. Duh! Oh yes. Allison will not eat Lucky Charms. Daniel will eat Lucky Charms.” Teacher erases her mistake on the board and replaces Allison’s name with Daniel’s name and starts from the top saying, “Aiden will eat Lucky Charms. Daniel will eat Lucky Charms. Okay…ummm… (sounds confused again, and asks:) …Class…who will eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch?”

Students take turns using the target language to help the teacher make a list (on the board in complete L2 sentences) of delineating which students will eat the cereal varieties. Teacher may choose to ask students to help by giving answers verbally. Teacher may also allow one student at a time to come to the board and use the dry erase markers to write the correct and complete L2 sentences.

To introduce first and second person forms of the future tense verb, Teacher can ask questions like, “Aiden what will you eat? Will you eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch or will you eat Lucky Charms?” If student struggles to come up with the appropriate answer you can write it on the board or use the Two-Hand Method.

REFLECT: What did the students experience during this activity?

Students repeatedly heard and read how to use “to eat” in the future tense.